Courses
Merion East: The Course That Refused to Get Bigger
Most golf courses that host a U.S. Open get bigger afterwards. Land is bought, tees are pushed back, a corporate village materialises somewhere that used to be …
Courses
Courses
Bandon Dunes: The Course That Proved Golf Didn't Need a Cart
There is no obvious reason a golf resort should exist on a remote stretch of the southern Oregon coast, four hours from the nearest sizeable airport and closer …
Courses
Kiawah's Ocean Course: Where the Wind Writes the Test
There are courses that defend themselves with length, courses that rely on rough, and courses that lean on water and bunkering to make a player think twice. The …
Courses
Royal Troon: A Gentle Out, a Brutal Home
Royal Troon sits on the Ayrshire coast looking out across the Firth of Clyde to the hump of Ailsa Craig, and on a still summer morning it can fool a visitor …
Courses
Bethpage Black: The Public Course That Plays Like a Punishment
Most of the great championship courses in the world are private, gated affairs where the closest an ordinary golfer gets is a television screen. Bethpage Black …
Courses
Royal Birkdale: The Fairest Examination in Links Golf
In five weeks the Open Championship returns to Royal Birkdale, and the certainty worth holding onto amid all the build-up is this: whoever lifts the Claret Jug …
Courses
Carnoustie: The Course That Earns Its Nickname
There is a reason the players call it Carnasty, and it is not affection. Carnoustie sits on a flat, exposed strip of the Angus coast north of the Tay, and on …
Courses
TPC Sawgrass: The Course That Was Built to Be Watched
Most great golf courses were laid out by men who wanted to find the best holes hiding in a piece of ground. Pete Dye’s Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was …
Courses
Muirfield: The Course That Asks for Every Wind
The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which is the formal name of the members’ club that has owned the course at Muirfield since the late …
Courses
Royal Melbourne West: The Sandbelt Course That Set the Argument for the Other Hundred
The Sandbelt, on the south-east side of Melbourne, is the patch of land on which Australian golf was decided. The patch is about eleven miles across, runs in a …